[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.126 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.126 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.126 - **Language:** English ### [c5.126](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.126) ĀRANYAKA. ‘Belonging to the forest.’ Certain religious and philosophical writings which expound the mystical sense of the ceremonies, discuss the nature of God, &c. They are attached to the Brāhmanas, and intended for study in the forest by Brāhmans who have retired from the distractions of the world. There are four of them extant: 1. Brihad; 2. Taittirīya; 3. Aitareya; and 4. Kaushītaki Āranyaka. The Āranyakas are closely connected with the Upanishads, and the names are occasionally used interchangeably: thus the Brihad is called indifferently Brihad Āranyaka or Brihad Āranyaka Upanishad; it is attached to the Satapatha Brāhmana. The Aitareya Upanishad is a part of the Aitareya Brāhmana, and the Kaushītaki Āranyaka consists of three chapters, of which the third is the Kaushītaki Upanishad. “Traces of modern ideas (says Max Müller) are not wanting in the Āranyakas, and the very fact that they are destined for a class of men who had retired from the world in order to give themselves up to the contemplation of the highest problems, shows an advanced and already declining and decaying society, not unlike the monastic age of the Christian world.” “In one sense the Āranyakas are old, for they reflect the very dawn of thought; in another they are modern, for they speak of that dawn with all the experience of a past day. There are passages in these works unequalled in any language for grandeur, boldness, and simplicity. These passages are the relics of a better age. But the generation which became the chronicler of those Titanic wars of thought was a small race; they were dwarfs, measuring the footsteps of departed giants.” - [Previous: c5.125](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.125) - [Next: c5.127](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.127) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5) ## Linked texts (1) - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.126](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.126) · Pramāṇa